The week's big news is that I went from training for just a half marathon in October to training for a full marathon in December. The half is at the perfect time in the training cycle, so it fits right in. 

Workout summary:

• Monday: OFF 
• Tuesday:  Hill repeats (3 miles plus warmup and cool down) - 3.62 miles (8:59 pace)
• Wednesday: Trail run (easy) - 3.96 miles (9:24 pace) 
• Thursday: OFF 
• Friday: Easy run - 5.01 miles (9:02 pace)
• Saturday: Barre workout + 4 mile family bike ride (easy)
• Sunday: Long run (very easy) - 8.13 miles (9:31 pace)

Total miles:  Run -  20.72 miles / Total runs: 4 / Total core/strength workouts: 1 / Total crosstraining: 1

I missed paddleboarding again this week because of scheduling, but I did make a point after every run to do at least 5-10 minutes of yoga flow and stretches, plus I got a barre workout in on Saturday morning at Barre Evolution. I'm loving my Sunday morning long runs instead of Saturdays. It leaves Saturday open for me to go to barre or strength (or maybe spin). I'm still trying to figure out the right mix of core and strength work and where it fits in my schedule.  

My "long" run this week was an 8-miler and that's the longest I've run since April. I felt great, and I definitely could have kept going for a few more miles. My endurance is slowly coming back. And even though it was 100% humidity, I wasn't wheezing or having breathing issues at all. So that was nothing less than amazing. When you can get air in and fill those lungs to capacity, everything else just clicks. 

I'm also happy that I've been running consistently four days a week and my mileage is steadily (and safely) increasing. This is a big deal for me. I've always struggled with running more than three days in a week (even during marathon training, when I often only ran twice), but having a coach give me schedule and knowing that I have to let her know if I did it (or missed it) makes my schedule a little more solid. I know that Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays are my run days, and if I need to shift one of my runs to a different day, I usually do that ahead of time so I know what's coming. As we start to add more mileage for the full, I'm thinking I may need to add a 5th day, and I think I'll be okay with that since it will be scheduled and I can plan. 

My week in snapshots

And I'll wrap up with a few snapshots from my week: a post-barre juice from Blend Juice Bar, several beautiful sunsets, some cute beagles, happy hour at Edmund's Oast (love that place), and a Golden Orb Silkweaver who decided to set up camp by our back door for a day.